Bid to boost organ donation

Organ donation officials from six countries will meet today to find ways to boost cooperation that could increase the prevalence and standard of transplants across Europe.

In the UK and much of Europe there is a shortage of organs for donation, from hearts and livers to kidneys, leaving thousands to endure pain and illness for years or suffer premature death.

The conference organiser Dr Martin Molzahn, chairman of Germany's transplant agency, said that the six countries - UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Hungary - wanted to take the initiative within the EU "to fight the shortage of organs".

At the meeting, in Frankfurt, the governments and transplant authorities will support a joint declaration on improving donations, which is expected to commit them to work together to maximise organ donation and the effectiveness of transplant services by sharing experience and data as well as fostering joint research.

A wide variety of organ donation systems and legal structures exist in Europe, leading to large differences in donor rates, from more than 33 per million in Spain to around 13 per million people in the UK, where would-be donors have to opt-in by going on the national register or carrying a donor card to allow their organs to be removed.

Dr Blanca Miranda, director of the Spanish Organizacion Nacional de Transplantation, will be explaining her country's high figure, which is the result of a presumed consent law allowing organ removal unless the person has opted out of donation, along with improved surveillance and procedures to identify donors in hospitals, and poor road safety.

Not on the agenda but expected to come up in discussion will be questions around compensated donation, where individuals are either paid or receive expenses for loss of income and other costs when they become a donor, usually of a single kidney.